A Shared Night at Moperville
by Ineluki Stormking
Summary: Even best friends don't share everything. But if the deepest secrets are unwillingly bared, even the strongest friendship can be in danger. Tedd & Elliot in an unexpected body-sharing situation.
1. Chapter 1

**Tough Love, Part 1**

**_A Shared Night at Moperville_**

"C'mon, let's not panic now, we can sort this out somehow."

"Tedd, I _know_ you have no idea what happened here."

"Well, duh. I know that you know, Elliot. You now know everything I know, right?"

"Yes, and that raises the word disturbing to a whole new level."

"You think it's better on my end, dude? I also happen to remember everything about where you and Sarah were during lunch period today..."

"L-let's not go there, Tedd."

"Thought so."

The lone figure stopped its pacing for a second.

"But again... please try to calm down, Elliot. You can't panic now without me freaking out too, and I can't think like that!" Frustration caused Tedd to raise his voice more than he had intended to.

"Sorry! Sorry, mate, it's just..."

"Yeah, I know..."

The young man called Tedd resumed his pacing up and down through the limited space his lab in the basement provided. His monologue might seem somewhat strange to an observer, considering he did not talk into a cell or microphone, but just to himself.

Tedd didn't care though. He had other problems and was sure that no observer would be in the house anyway, since school wasn't officially out yet. He had just arrived home himself and not even changed his clothes yet. There were more important things that occupied his mind now, including his best friend Elliot – no pun intended.

But bearing in mind his rather unusual and unprecedented situation, it does not come as a surprise at all that one fact – one he would consider important – slipped his mind: his girlfriend would be home any minute now.

"All right, where to start?" Tedd murmured, trying to clear his head and concentrate on what was important now. But this simple task proved more of a handicap than usual.

"Elliot, please shut up!"

"What? I didn't say anything!"

"No, you're thinking too loud! Stop it!"

"Well, how am I supposed to do that, Tedd?"

"I don't know! Blasted, you just do!"

"Well, sorry I'm not adept enough at being Zen! That's..."

"...more Justin's department," Tedd finished with a sudden smirk, the image of Justin being cut short from trying to achieve inner peace coming to his mind through Elliot's memories.

"Sorry, mate..." he started to apologize for his outburst.

"S'okay, Tedd."

"It's just: I _really_ can't imagine many things that are more annoying than not being able to _think_ straight."

"Yeah, I guess. Maybe we do need outside help after all." But Elliot knew Tedd's refusal before he even finished that thought.

"No! Not yet. We need more information on what happened first. You don't think this was mere coincidence, right? And we don't even know where your body is!"

"Yeah, and that's kinda disturbing for me, too."

"Oh, I've seen worse today," Tedd countered. "Not that I had never fantasized about Sarah before I met Grace, but..."

"I said let's not go there! Or did you forget I know everything about you and..."

That train of thought instantly conjured the image of Tedd and Grace in a rather intimate embrace on the very couch behind him from Tedd's memory.

"Well, I _had_ repressed that recollection, but thanks for bringing it up again, dude. _I_ don't really mind, y'know."

"I can't help it!" Elliot exclaimed through Tedd. "It's just so much to repress!"

They were both on edge here, confronted with a situation that was disturbing for both of them: sharing one body. And even if you're stuck in this situation with your best friends, there are probably a lot of things you really don't want him to know.

"Gah! Stop making me blush, Elliot!"

Caught up in what could also be described as a mental duel, neither of them was aware of the door to the basement opening. And even if they had been more alert, the silent footsteps on the stairs were too inaudible for human hearing anyway. So it happened as it had to.

"Gah! Gr-" Tedd instantly realized what happened, as a big, fluffy tail wrapped around him and he was tackled to the ground. Elliot, however, didn't realize it, and since he was not really accustomed to listening to Tedd's thoughts yet, his initial reaction turned out somewhat more defensive.

However, neither of these two minds inhabiting Tedd's body achieved anything, since the mixed signals more or less cancelled each other out.

In the split second it took Tedd to regain control, Grace had already turned him around and greeted him with a warm welcoming kiss.

Tedd had never felt so conflicted in his life, between himself embracing the girl he loved and Elliot who was close to panic over the out of the blue intimacy he not only had to remember but also experience now.

All these mixed feelings were easily readable on Tedd's face, causing the squirrel girl to be taken slightly aback.

"What's wrong, Teddy?" she asked, sitting on top of him.

"I... you..." Tedd felt a severe blush spreading across his face. "No, stop it, Elliot!"

"Elliot?" Grace asked, tilting her head sideways at him.

The resident mad scientist had a hard time arranging his thoughts and trying to ignore Elliot. He struggled with the words for several seconds until he gave up and just shook his head.

Then, starting from scratch, he abandoned his plans of not telling anybody and explained to her what had transpired that day.

* * *

It looks like our friends from Moperville are in quite the predicament here. But instead of listening to their recap of what happened in school today, we bring you a scene from the _Lucky Bunny Bounty Show_!

Okay, no, not really. But let us instead go one step further back and look into the reason of how this could happen in the first place.

The motivation behind it all is one that every human is familiar with: boredom. Which makes it somewhat ironic that the entity triggering this whole mess was not a human in the first place.

No, it is an immortal, and quite a wicked one. As with most denizens of the higher planes, it spends its time observing the world of the mortals. But unlike most such entities, this one is often not content with just observing. Watching gets boring after a while, since the problems of humans are rather finite and tend to repeat if you watch for a few millennia.

Recently, our immortal found something that delighted it greatly. A temporary denizen of the spirit plane, called Magus, that it was able to torment for its own pleasure.

But it sensed that even this entertainment would be over soon. Too soon for its liking. There had to be a way to get more fun out of this situation. And there was! Fate played its hand and revealed something to our mischievous entity: a spiritual link. Normally these things were quite impossible to detect for those not connected by it, but this one was rather strong; even transcending dimensions! And it connected two mortals, those whom we know as Tedd and Elliot.

The inquisitive reader will now ask what such a spirit link is, and what does it do. Well, these bonds actually exist between any two people who know each other. However, most of them are very faint and their influence negligible. But the stronger the relationship, the more stable such a link becomes. And as it strengthens so to do some aspects of relationships that humans never fully understood, like the wordless accordance between good friends that can even border on what seems like telepathy.

As such, it can be said that a spirit link is both a representation of as well as an influence on any relationship between two creatures.

But all this was of little importance for the mischievous immortal, compared to the fact that Magus had an intense interest in one of the humans bonded by this link.

_But what would Magus do_, the entity thought, _if that boy would virtually vanish from the plane of mortals_.

It was so simple! Those other immortals following him were easily distracted. They were gullible tools for the mischievous immortal and it only needed a second – a pull on the proverbial string – and the mortal named Elliot suddenly found himself a lot closer to the other end of this spiritual link than he wished.

_Oh, that was nearly as much fun to watch as seeing Magus squirm,_ the entity smirked.

And so it happened that Elliot's body was thrown across the planes, tied to his location by the link, while his mind fled into the only other host available who was sitting on the other end of the spiritual 'string': Tedd's body.

And how our friends now set out to part bodies again – since neither of them was thrilled by the idea of sharing a single corpus – is the story to be told.

* * *

"So I went straight home," Tedd closed the recap of his day in school. "I think nobody saw me, but I can't really be sure."

"And you're sure you don't want to tell anybody?" Grace asked.

"Not if we can avoid it. This mess is... embarrassing enough as it is."

"Why is that?" the squirrel girl chirped. "_I_ wouldn't mind sharing a body with you."

By now they were sitting on the couch, since Elliot was rather unnerved by Grace sitting on top of their body on the floor.

"Yeah, well, neither would I, but..." Not for the first time today, Tedd struggled with the words. "It's hard to explain, Grace."

His girlfriend raised an eyebrow. "If you say so, Teddy. But I heard you talking when I came down here. Why do you even have to talk, when you know what you're thinking?"

"Heh, smart girl," Tedd complimented her. "Yes, we could in fact just 'think'..."

"... were it not for the fact, that I still have problems following Tedd's trains of thought," Elliot finished.

"Gosh! That's so weird, hearing both of you with one voice from one mouth."

"Not as weird as being in here, I assure you," Elliot claimed, a bit morose.

"Enough of that," Tedd cut him short. "I gotta start thinking about a solution now!" He got up and walked over to his computer. "But where to start? We don't even know if this is magic- or tech-related, if it has to do with souls or not, or if we can even find Elliot's body!"

"You might even read up on out-of-body-experiences," Grace suggested, now standing behind his chair and resting her chin upon Tedd's head.

"Hey, good idea... but, uh, Grace, sweetie, you know I fully appreciate all affection, but Elliot here..."

"Oh, sorry, I forgot," she said with an impish smile.

"Mmmmaybe it would help if we zapped you with Sarah's clone form," Tedd suggested with a smirk to his girlfriend, ignoring Elliot's mental protests. "Oh, calm down, Elliot, you prude! I'm just messing with you, and you _know_ it!" he added, feeling the strong refusal of his best buddy surging through his body.

"Anyway... as I was saying, good idea. We gotta look that up too. I just wonder if I should start trying to find his body or a method to get him out of me, first."

"Body, please," Elliot asked.

"I was thinking the opposite. While I understand your reasoning, we don't know where to start on the body, but the other end might bring us there anyway. Don't worry, I won't exorcise your 'spirit' without a host body nearby," Tedd grinned.

"I wonder if the Dewitchery Diamond would work again," Grace mused, now lounging on the couch again.

"I am rather conflicted on that topic," Tedd admitted.

"Why's that?"

"Well, the last time we used it... on the one hand, it was a big mess with the whole evil twin syndrome and there's no telling what could happen this time, but on the other hand we got Ellen now, which was quite worth the trouble I think, wasn't it? However, aside from that, I don't think Elliot would be as contempt with his mind in a copy of my body, so let's keep that as a last resort, okay?"

"Right."

"Uh, Tedd? You know, if this takes much longer, my parents will start getting worried at home," Elliot reminded his friend.

"I know!" He sighed. "Yeah, I know, Elliot; I'll try to hurry. Otherwise we'll tell them you're going to spend the night here." He felt his friend's approval and continued his search.

An hour passed, and Tedd started to grow desperate. Personal notes, scientific articles and newsletters, random forum threads on tangential topics, and not even a slight hint at their current situation. But there was one source he had not consulted yet.

"Time to fire up our special router," he murmured, standing up and stepping around the desk.

"Huh?" said Elliot, who had done his best to be as invisible as possible over the last hour. Grace had gone upstairs to quickly finish her homework.

"I'll contact Beta. Remember him?"

'Beta' was one of Tedd's counterparts from another dimension. They had kept in touch for some years, mostly exchanging research.

"Sure, but how can he help?"

"He's got a lot more experience with dimensions and planes, and I got a feeling that's what we're dealing with here."

He connected the small box behind his computer that Beta had sent him on their first contact. He had called it a trans-dimensional modem, but Tedd knew it was more than that.

They were lucky; Beta was instantly accessible today and it took only a few minutes to describe their situation. When Tedd finished his recounting, Beta was looking very contemplative.

Finally he nodded. "Yes, I think I have some notes that might be of use to you. I can't go and help you myself just now, as things are pretty busy here."

Before he even finished his sentence, a little red lamp lit up outside his webcam's cone of view.

"Uhh, is this a bad time?" Tedd asked. It looked like things had changed since they had last spoken. Tedd just now realized that the rest of Beta's room wasn't evenly lit, as he remembered it.

"As good as any," Beta assured them quickly, but not very convincingly. "Look, I gotta take care of things now. You got the stack of notes in your inbox. Once you find a solution and may need my help to carry it out, I'll be in touch again. Later."

And without another word he went offline.

Tedd stared at the now black webcam window for a few more seconds and tried to make sense of his counterpart's demeanour. But he quickly snapped out of it. At the moment, they had their own problems.

"I don't like this," Elliot informed him, referring to Beta's sudden departure.

"Neither do I, but we can't do anything now." He felt the grouchy acceptance of his best friend and let it drop.

Time was running through his fingers, if they wanted to keep this situation a secret from their other friends and their parents. He opened the half a dozen documents Beta had sent him simultaneously and started reading.

* * *

It is important to know for our little story why Tedd did not even want to tell his father about their situation, even though he was more likely to have a solution ready for him. The thing was that whenever trouble like this happened, it would in most cases turn out to be Tedd's fault for some reason, even if he hadn't really done something in his own eyes.

Oh what a different route our story would have taken, if Tedd had not had these problems. For Mr. Verres had indeed a solution ready for him – in form of a small device that allowed access to the spirit plane. He had brought it home for an inspection, but a little quirk – the orbicular apparatus tended to cause short term memory leaks – was the reason why he still had not returned it for several weeks now.

It was exactly what they had needed, but since Tedd didn't know about it and wouldn't ask for help, he was bound to remain completely oblivious about this solution.

But on the other hand Tedd was about to discover another apparent answer to their problem; unfortunately one that would make things worse.

"Hah, got something!"

"Oh you can't be serious..."

"Why not, it looks perfect? All we need is an Elliot form... hey, wait, we never actually tested if you could just transform by yourself, did we?"

"I'll give it a try..." Elliot tried to will himself to change. But: "ugh, nah, that won't work. It feels like trying to lift a mountain with a single finger!"

"Damn."

"So we don't have my form, and we can't scan my body since we don't have that either!" Elliot didn't understand how Tedd could even consider that a valid plan.

"Oh, I'll think of something," Tedd assured him. "But if we can make that work then that'd even solve the problem of fooling your parents if we take too long to get back to normal."

"Yes, but it all stands and falls with having a clone form of my body, and unless you have scanned me without my knowledge, I think it's too late for that now."

"Of course I haven't... but I'll put it on my to-do list to make a backup of everybody we know! Just in case, you know?"

Elliot still wasn't convinced.

"Okay, Elliot form: let's see what we can do. Programming it from scratch takes too long of course. But, hey, we could scan Ellen..."

"And then zap the form with the male setting?"

"Nah, that wouldn't work."

"Well, I'd like to be male again, just so you know..."

"What? You don't wanna be hot?"

"No comment..."

Tedd didn't manage to suppress his big grin.

"Point taken, but nevertheless... hmmm, I could take the scanned data and modify it. That'd be quick since you're practically identical, except for a few parameters..."

"Only a few parameters?" Elliot wasn't sure he understood his friend correctly.

"Yeah, in the form of code, there isn't much difference. Thank the gods for object-oriented programming."

"Uh-kay, I'll just have to trust you on this one, won't I?"

"As always," Tedd smirked.

"You're enjoying this way too much for my liking."

"Eh, just trying to make the best of it, mate. And so should you..."

"I... will think about it."

"Suit yourself. Now where's my portable scanner..."

"How do you want to pull this off without her noticing?"

"Oh, right, that might be a problem... hmm, what about waiting for her to fall asleep?"

"We'd have to wait for everybody in my house to be asleep then."

"When will that be? Midnight, right?" Tedd asked, surveying Elliot's memories.

"Yes, but then we can't fool my parent with it and we'll get to sleep really, really late." Elliot didn't know yet just how true this would turn out to be.

"Got a better idea?" Tedd shot back.

"...no."

"Good, then let's find a way to waste time till midnight without anybody we know seeing us. We can't stay here, so I'll tell Grace to tell dad we went to the mall or something and won't be here for dinner."

"Sounds like a plan," Elliot said reluctantly. He still wasn't convinced this was the best possible way, but since he had no better idea and didn't really want to explain their situation to anybody else, he had no choice but to go along with it.

"Good, I'll drop a note for Beta then. He can send it here, while we're out anyway. Sending items always takes some time and preparation anyway."

Tedd's plan included a wand that Beta possessed and which would allow them to split bodies again. But to make this work in the way they needed it, they also needed Elliot's form. Unfortunately, as was often the case, there was more to the magic of this wand than Beta knew and could have written in his notes. Such magic was often a bit frail, had limitations and couldn't cope with all eventualities... but our two friends would find that out soon enough!


	2. Chapter 2

It has been several hours now since they had left home and the sun had already set. Tedd and Elliot – both in Tedd's body – were lingering around the Moperville mall, while it still was open. The waiting had worn on both of them.

With the novelty of their situation already worn off, it was getting harder and harder to repress whatever would make the other one uncomfortable, since they were getting more and more accustomed to listening to each others' thoughts.

They were both longing for some diversion, but it is as they say: 'beware what you wish for, for you might get it.'

"The mall'll close soon now..." Elliot remarked quietly.

"Hmmm, I know."

"Any ideas on where to go then?"

Instead of answering out loud, Tedd conjured up a few images of places in Moperville where he thought they could stay undisturbed till midnight.

"Most of them will be useless if it starts to rain. And that's what it looks like to me," Elliot said with a gaze through the glass dome above them.

_Yeah, most of them, _Tedd thought, _but not all. And stop talking out loud, that guy over there is looking at us funny__ again._

_Sorry, it's not so easy for me._

They had finished another turn through the mall already.

_Let's head out, _Tedd suggested, thinking there was no need to stay until the last possible minute before closing. It was already a tedious task to watch out for anybody who could recognize them.

Elliot had been surprised at how sneaky Tedd could be, if he wanted to. His friend had easily picked routes through the two floors of the mall, where they were most likely to not stand out, and kept an eye on so many things! If Elliot hadn't known better, he had thought this would be part of his friend's daily routine.

He was reminded of this just now, when he noticed Tedd steering to the left of the exit where they could not be seen from the busy clothing shop to the right.

_Did you, y'know, learn that from your dad or something? _he couldn't help but ask.

Thanks to their mental link, Tedd didn't have to ask what his friend was referring to. _Nah... I guess I never told you. _He sighed. _But things were a bit different before we met._

_What do you mean?_

_Jeez, man, what could I mean? Let's just say I was rather good at hiding._

Elliot felt the reluctance of his friend in talking about this, so he dropped it.

_Ah, fresh air,_ he changed topics instead.

_How could I have missed that? _Tedd answered with a tiny smile. Then added on a sudden intuition: _Heh, body-sharing humour. Too bad we won't be able to pull that off for long._

_So now you suddenly wanna stay like this? _

Tedd felt his friend's amusement. _Never said that. But you can't deny it has some perks._

_Call me a pessimist if you want, but this just has me remembering the downsides._

Tedd snorted. _Sure, now I have to live with the knowledge that my best friend secretly thinks I'm 'cute'._

_Look, I said I'm sorry. _

_Don't be. _Tedd chuckled. Elliot's embarrassment over the whole thing almost made up for it. Almost. _It's not your fault, but still... it's... weird._

For a moment they walked in silence, splitting from the crowd that slowly poured out of the mall. Tedd turned into a little alley next to the building complex that inhabited the shopping center.

It was the same small alleyway that Grace and Sarah passed through several weeks ago, only in the other direction. Furthermore, the very same robber lurked there again – it was his favourite place to waylay people after all and he wouldn't be deterred by one little setback with two strange girls.

The parallels end here, however, because said mugger was sound asleep in a pile of boxes, sleeping off his intoxication.

So our two friends passed him without even noticing his presence – only to be ambushed by two very much awake robbers near the end of the alley!

_Holyshitwegottabolt!_ Tedd's mind was racing and Elliot had problems understanding him correctly, but it was easy to figure out his general plan.

_No, they'll expect that. We'll have to fight them, but don't worry, _Elliottried to calm his friend, _I can take them._

_Dude-this-isn't-your-own-body!_

_Doesn't matter. Do you trust me, Tedd? _he asked in all honesty.

_I- yes but__-_

_Then just don't do anything._

The first mugger was as big as Elliot and holding a club. The other one wasn't taller than Tedd, but he was wielding a knife.

"Look who we have here," the big robber exclaimed in feigned surprise.

"C'mon little girl," the other said, "hand over your money, and you can just walk away."

Tedd tried to heed Elliot's advice and let him handle things – his friend had as much control over this body as Tedd himself after all. He was still on the verge of panic, thinking that Elliot was in it over his head – at least without his own body.

He found some comfort in Elliot's thoughts however, observing how his friend studied the two muggers, calmly categorizing the threat they each posed and laying out a plan of action.

Elliot was also delighted to hear that they thought they had a defenseless girl in front of them. What he could not know however, was that these two were more careful around girls than usual since their colleague's tale about a demon girl had spread. Of course they mostly dismissed it as a drunkard's story, but one could never be too careful in their line of work.

This all boiled down to Elliot not having as big of an advantage of surprise as he thought he did.

"I- okay," he said in feigned compliance and made a tentative step towards the muggers, reaching for his pocket as if to pull out his wallet.

_I'm rather attached to my money, you know? _Tedd informed him.

_Don't worry, I have no inten__tion__ of giving them anything valuable, _Elliot retorted with the mental equivalent of a slight frown directed at Tedd's doubts.

"C'mon girlie, we don't have all night!" The small robber got impatient already.

With a sudden jerking movement Elliot pulled out the wallet and – accompanied by a false shriek, so it was more convincing – threw it in a high arc over the heads of the muggers.

"What the-" Both robbers turned to grab it simultaneously.

A moment of having their backs turned to Elliot was all he needed.

Grabbing a lid from one of the adjacent garbage cans, he launched Tedd's body towards the two unsuspecting robbers.

"Hai!" he shouted, trying to deter them from actually picking up the wallet.

As the big man turned around, he caught the side of the lid right into the face and stumbled backwards with a cry.

His mate wasn't as easily surprised though. He had instantly dropped into a defensive crouch, ready to lunge out with his knife.

When Elliot turned to face him, he was greeted by a stab towards his chest.

He had intended to block that with his improvised shield, but Tedd's own defensive reflex came in the way of this plan. Elliot's friend was not at all adept at fighting, and as much as he tried to let Elliot handle all movements of the body they shared, he just couldn't restrain bringing up his arm in a defensive reflex when he saw he knife coming in his direction.

Of course an arm was a ridiculous defense against a sharp knife when compared to a metal garbage can lid. For the first time in this fight, Elliot thought their heart skipped a beat as he saw their right arm shooting up, hindering his intended defense.

They were lucky though, for the knife only glanced their arm before being pushed sideways by the lid.

The mugger snarled and pulled back for another, better aimed stab, but Elliot was quicker. He slammed the impromptu shield square into the robber's face causing him to stagger backwards like his colleague.

Elliot then hurried to pick up the wallet, but before he could stand up again, he felt a sharp sting shoot through his calf. The other robber was still leaning against the wall, holding his likely broken nose, but Elliot had stepped too close and come into the reach of his club. With a low growl the jelly-haired boy twirled around and kicked at the hand holding the crude weapon.

He discovered, however, that Tedd's body was far to light for him to be able to inflict any harm that way. His only option was to fight dirty, even if he had always hated to do that.

Feinting a kick with his left foot, he quickly followed through with the right knee, knocking the sitting man's head back against the wall with a nasty smack. A quick glance around showed him that the other mugger was still struggling to get clear from the boxes he had stumbled into and the wallet was still lying untouched in the middle of the alley.

Less than fifteen seconds had passed since Elliot had thrown the wallet when he picked it up again and made a run for it. Those two would-be muggers would be back on their feet in only a few seconds, but that was time enough to make a run for it.

_Not bad, _Tedd said once they had some distance between them and the alley and were back in a more populated area.

_Well, that could have gone better, _Elliot admitted.

_Still... __remind me__ to never piss you off! _Tedd then surveyed his forearm. _Just a cut in the shirt, no blood._

But now that the adrenalin started to wear off, he felt his calf more than a little bit.

_Damn, but that _does _hurt. Why didn't we just run in the first place?_

"Sorry about your leg," Elliot murmured audibly, not feeling like mustering the concentration to speak purely through thoughts. "Well, they would have expected that and letting them catch up to us then could have ended much worse."

_I see..._

"Let's head to the old town square with the fountain. We can wash the scratch on your forearm there, just to be sure."

_'kay..._

They covered the distance limping and in silence. Elliot was still going over his mistakes in the fight and didn't even try to follow Tedd's line of thought until his friend suddenly said: _Maybe I should take a few lessons in self-defen__se__ from you._

"You're serious," Elliot sensed, to his surprise.

_So what if I am?_

_Well, you could come to my martial arts training once, and see what it's like._

_... yeah, I'll think about that._

They fell silent again. Elliot was really taken aback by his friend's sudden interest in learning self-defense. Especially since he knew that, for all these years he had known Tedd, his best friend had never shown interest in any physical activities.

_Hey, stop thinking about me like I'm not here, _Tedd let him know with what amounted to the mental equivalent of a wink.

Elliot of course couldn't help but apologize anyway. _Sorry, I didn't mean to..._

_It's okay, man__.__ I'm a little surprised by it myself, I guess. But such a fight gets you thinking, you know?_

_It does?_

_Yes. I mean, even if I started carrying my TFG around wherever I went – which dad wouldn't exactly approve of – I likely would still only be able to zap one of them, before the other one reached me, so..._

_I see, _Elliot answered slowly, following the graphic scenario his friend played out in his mind, ending with himself getting stabbed repeatedly.

They had reached the fountain at the town square, and Tedd rolled up his right sleeve to where the knife had glanced him. It was really just a superficial scratch, but he cleaned it thoroughly anyway.

_Good, now let's sit down, _he thought, seeking some relief from the dull throbbing in his left calf.

They picked out a bench that was well lit without being directly below a lantern and slumped into it. For a moment they just sat back to relax. Then Tedd couldn't help but start to chuckle.

_What's the matter? _Elliot had to ask, not quite getting what was so amusing for his friend.

_Oh, look at us, Elliot! _Tedd prompted him. _Just look at us, sitting here in the middle of the night, calmly sharing a body, waiting for midnight to come __so we can__sneak into your house, __all the__ while knowing each others darkest secrets... _He was nearly laughing out loud now. _And yet it seems almost normal to us!_

_What?_

_Like a normal day, y'know?_

_Uh, yeah, kinda... _The truth of this statement was only slowly getting to Elliot now.

_Oh man. Just look at us... _Tedd repeated with another chuckle. _And I really couldn't imagine living through this with anybody else... Dude, have I ever told you, how grateful I am that we met? _He asked on a sudden impulse.

Even though they shared one brain and knew each other's thoughts, Elliot was rather taken aback by this._ What? Aw, shucks, Tedd! I... it's just the same with you, man._

_See? I'm even willing to forgive you for thinking I'm 'cute'!_

Even Elliot had to laugh, and for a moment, all their worries were forgotten.

Finally Tedd had a look at his watch.

_Already after eleven. Let's rest here for a few more minutes and then start walking to your house. It's a good distance, after all._

_Right, let's._

* * *

Walking to Elliot's home proved uneventful – except for the rain that began to fall and quickly drained most of their good mood. But then...

_Wait, shit, we don't have a key, right? _Tedd cursed.

_No sweat, there's one hidden next to the backdoor._

_Oh, good! That'd be really stupid otherwise. We waiting all night only to use the door bell in the end._

Elliot took control of their body then and snuck around the dark building to the backdoor, where he had to feel around in the darkness until he found the key.

The interior of the house was dead quiet, as they had it expected it to be. They dropped their wet shoes at the backdoor to leave no suspicious trail of rain water, and Elliot guided them through the darkness upstairs. Every noise they made while walking was covered by the rain outside.

_Now let's just hope nobody gets the idea to fetch himself a midnight snack, _Tedd mused.

_Don't worry, I'm pretty sure I'm the only one doing that from time to time, _Elliot smiled benignly.

They had arrived at the door of the room that Elliot and Ellen were sharing. Tedd was really thankful for the rain pattering against the windows now, as it easily overlapped the sound of the squeaking door. Elliot let it stand ajar and then headed for Ellen's bed while Tedd pulled out the portable scanner from under his shirt where he had to put earlier it to keep it dry – they had grown quiet adept at steering this one body with two minds now.

As Tedd focused his thoughts on their target, he had to take a big gulp however. He had not yet considered how Ellen was sleeping and if it would be a problem to scan her... but no, it wouldn't be a problem to scan her – not at all! But the sight of her, lying on her back in only a _very_ thin nightshirt with the blanket pushed down below her belly and one bare leg dangling out, was something Tedd _should _have prepared himself for. But he hadn't and the knowledge that Elliot could follow his every thought didn't exactly make things better.

Elliot followed these thoughts with a mixture of perturbation and – to his own astonishment – a bit of amusement. He knew full well that they should be done here as fast as they could and make a run for it again, but he just _couldn't _help but tease his friend and think: _You need a moment?_

_Ye-... no! Blasted, man, that was uncalled for! From you of all people! _Tedd was just torn between the embarrassment and amusement over Elliot's feigned dry tone. Finally, he shook his head forcefully and lifted the scanner over the sleeping Ellen. A quick push of the button, three seconds of scanning, and they were done.

They both kept quiet until they were back at the door.

In an reflexive attempt to save face, Tedd said: _Well, I already told you__ –__ you were hot as _a_ female._

_I guess that makes us kinda even now, right?_

_Uh, yeah... I guess._

_Good. Wait, I'll grab an umbrella. That rain might still get worse._

_Wait, why not take the car then? _Tedd asked.

_You know where my keys are?_

_Oh, right, on your missing body. Any others__ around?_

_Would have to search for it... not possible in the dark._

_Damn, all right then._

And so they headed out again, back to Tedd's house at last.


	3. Chapter 3

The Verres' residence was quiet as well. Tedd pushed back the thoughts of the lecture he would likely receive from his dad the next day for coming home so late on a school day.

In the basement, there was a note waiting for them behind the keyboard. It was Grace's handwriting and said:

_Tedd, Beta said he sent the wand, but it never appeared here. I talked to him and we found out he mixed up the coordinate entries for our and Elliot's house or something. So it must've been sent there. Dad just came home and I gotta go to bed now. Love you, Grace_

Tedd and Elliot both stared, flabbergasted by the note.

_Dad never comes home after eleven, so we should have seen it at your place! Why wasn't it there?_

_Maybe we just missed it, _Elliot supposed.

_No, according to Beta's notes it should be glowing. We couldn't have missed it!_

Elliot could just shrug.

_Wait, Beta always... _Tedd switched on the monitor and went through the chat logs.

_There it is! He always messages the exact coordinates when he sends something. And yes, this isn't our house, I can tell as much already._

_Wait, scroll up a bit. There. I've been wondering about that too: How does he know where I live in the first place? _Elliot saw that Grace had asked Beta the very same question earlier.

Tedd skipped through the lines and answered: _He homed in on your position when you were sleeping. Yeah, that should do the trick. If only he hadn't mixed up the entries. But I'll take a precaution this time._

He stood up and looked around. _Blasted, where's my GPS receiver, when I need it for once?!_

_I remember you throwing it in the drawer over there, _Elliot tried to help.

_Ah, you're right!_

Tedd snatched it out and entered Beta's coordinates.

_Right, let's see where Beta really dropped that blasted wand._

_And through the pouring rain again, _Elliot added with a sigh. _Why don't you reprogram the form first. This way we can first dry off a bit._

_Hm, yeah, why not? That way we can use your form instantly and won't have to carry the TFG around with us, _Tedd agreed and set down again to plug in the scanner.

But before he started to change the code, Tedd stood up again.

_No need in rushing this, _he informed Elliot. _I better grab something caffeine-based first to stay sharp, since errors would really not do for your new level one form._

_Yeah, another few minutes won't make a difference now, _Elliot agreed, trying to shake the fatigue as well. _Makes me wonder, though, _he added. _Is it possible for one of us to doze off, while the other stays awake?_

_Oh, I'd simply love to try that out!_ _Maybe we can even read each others dreams then, and I mean completely, not just those chunks that you remember after waking up. Man, that'd be a once in a lifetime opportunity!_

_Yeah,_ _too bad we're screwed if we both happen to doze off and sleep until tomorrow,_ _where we'd have a lot to explain to some people... where my body is for example!_

_Yeah, yeah, I know, man... but think of it! _The unique scientific possibilities truly engrossed Tedd so that he nearly spilled the soda he had just taken out of the fridge.

_Oh, pull yourself together, Tedd, _Elliot told him, actually understanding his friend's scientific curiosity for once. _We don't have time for this now. Maybe you'll be able to reproduce what happened today some other day, but now we want to focus on getting back to normal before anybody notices, right?_

_Yeah. Yeah, your right, man, _Tedd sighed, genuinely gloomy now, his plans coming to an abrupt stop. _But hey, you saying you'd do this_ _again in a more controlled fashion?_

_I, well,... _Elliot's voice of reason actually screamed out in terror now, but he just couldn't dismiss the honest delight he sensed in his best friend when he thought about that plan. And in addition to that he felt a bit of curiosity now too, as he suddenly realized! _Well, why not? _he finally said with a chuckle.

_Awesome, man! _Tedd grinned from ear to ear. _Now let's do this! I got a code to rewrite and we should change clothes_ _too, I guess, since you're not really my size._

_You got bigger sized cloth– wait, dumb question, _Elliot interrupted himself.

_No arguments here, _Tedd agreed and went down into the basement again.

Half an hour later all preparations were done and...

_So this is_ _what it's like to be you, eh? Elliot?_

"Ugh, what the hell?" Tedd's friend murmured, now with his own voice again, as they were now in Elliot's body. "I remember the TF gun to be a less unpleasant experience."

_What do you mean? It felt normal to me._

_I, I don't know... _Elliot admitted. _Maybe it was nothing. Just sleep deprivation._

_Hmmm. _Tedd checked the settings and status of the gun, but everything was normal. They had tested the form on the simulator as well and all lights had shown green, so to say. _Maybe you're right, _the resident scientist said, remaining unconvinced, but unable to do anything at the moment.

_No matter, let's head out and finish this up, _Elliot said.

"Right," Tedd murmured.

* * *

_Uh-'kay, do I even want to know? _Tedd asked, when they were standing in front of the house.

_You already do, why ask? _an embarrassed Elliot shot back.

Tedd had to restrain himself from laughing out loud. The GPS coordinates had send them straight to Sarah's house.

_Even though it heavily inconveniences us, this is just hilarious! Beta saving your coordinates the one time you were sleeping over at your girlfriend's! You don't do that that often, do you? _he teased Elliot.

_No comment._

_No need to be embarrassed, my friend. I'm the one who lives with his girlfriend after all, _Tedd grinned.

_... _Elliot denied himself an answer.

_Okay now... you don't happen to know a backdoor here, too?_

_No, but, uh... an open window._

_Oh, this gonna get interesting. Wait, what? _Tedd saw the image Elliot was conjuring from his memories. _Her window is on the upper floor? Oh blasted, now we're really breaking in, aren't we? Oh well, let's just hope nobody sees us._

His worries were unnecessary though, for not a single pair of eyes was watching the area behind Sarah's house this night.

_It's up there, _Elliot said once they had circled around the house. There was a small canopy over the terrace. The wind blew from the other side of the house so that the rain didn't reach it. One of the windows above it was in fact ajar.

_Climbing up there? I'll leave that up to you, _Tedd said.

_I once wondered if I would have to climb down here in a hurry some time,_ Elliot said while he put Tedd's umbrella into a corner and started to climb.

Even with Elliot's body this was no easy feat as there wasn't much to hold on to. What made is even more difficult was, that they weren't allowed to make too much noise either, but finally they sat on the edge and could catch their breath again.

Tedd started to worry about the weather now. It was starting to become a really bad late-winter storm, with the wind howling through the streets and the rain coming nearly horizontal with the gusts.

Elliot was thinking along the same lines and thus preferred to get inside. Standing up he reached into the gap of the open window and removed a wooden block that kept it in place.

_Good thing the regular tilted setting still is broken, _Elliot informed Tedd when he pushed it open carefully and stepped through the opening. Before looking around, he propped the window shut again, but then suddenly a light went on behind them.

_Blasted! Just... just tell her you need the wand. Nothing more! _Tedd instructed Elliot in a hurry.

_What? But... I can't lie to her! She'll know!_

_Pull yourself together, man! You can do this!_

"E- Elliot?" Sarah murmured sleepily, propping herself up on an elbow.

_Do it! _Tedd emphasized.

"H-hi Sarah." Elliot kneeled down next to her bed. "S-sorry to wake you, dear, I just wanted to fetch something."

The blond girl slowly wiped her eyes. "Wait, you're the reason this... wand dropped into the middle of my room?"

"Uh, yeah, kinda."

"Geez, Elliot, I really love you and all, but do you know how late it is?"

"Y-yeah, sorry, Sarah, but it's really important."

"It better be! It's over there, on the..." Sarah paused. "Wait a second," she suddenly prompted with a voice that sounded much more awake. "How the heck did you get in here?"

"Umm, actually, your window. It was just ajar."

"You climbed up here in the middle of the night, just to get this thing? What is this all about?"

"S-Sarah, I promise I'll explain it all to you, but I can't just yet. Is that okay?" Elliot was desperate to cut this conversation short. He couldn't lie and if this went on for much longer she'd catch on to something for sure.

Sarah buried her face in one hand. "You better, dear. It's over there, on my desk under some papers. Stupid thing wouldn't stop glowing."

"Great. Look, w- I gotta run. See you tomorrow in school, all right?" Elliot said, standing up again.

"Not so quick! C'mere and at least gimme a kiss as compensation for waking me up in the middle of the night like this!"

Tedd tried his best to 'look away', but that was rather difficult while sharing one body. Elliot was, of course, completely aware of that, much to his own dismay. Still, he bowed down to her and – with a sudden idea – took her head softly in one arm and gave her a kiss on her forehead, holding it just long enough that she wouldn't get suspicious. But he hated himself for this whole charade.

"G'night," he whispered and stood up again. Not wasting any time, he hurried to pick up the wand, stuffed it in the pocket of their pants, and went back to the window when Sarah switched off her bedside lamp again.

Tedd didn't see her any more, but he felt her eyes following Elliot until he was outside and out of sight again. And he felt the anger of his friend.

_Damn it, Tedd, I really hated to do that, _Elliot informed him.

_She's better off this_ _way, _Tedd answered as Elliot quickly made his way back to the ground.

_But I had to mislead her! I hate doing that! And she'll still expect an explanation tomorrow! _Elliot's temper was rising with the stubbornness of his friend not wanting to see the obvious.

_Well then_ _at least you won some time to think about some better explanation!_

_I told you, Tedd, I can't lie to her! She will just know I lied! And then I'll also have to explain why I lied to her just now!_

_Elliot, do you really think it would've been better to tell her the truth now? To explain to her_ _that we shared one body and now know everything about the other? Do you really want to worry her with that image? _

Elliot was really angry now. Of course Tedd had a point here. Tedd always had a point, and that just made him even more furious now. He pulled the wand from the pocket.

_How does this thing work now? _he demanded to know.

_It would be better if we went home first, _Tedd answered, tired of the discussion.

_No. We'll do this now. It's a trigger word, right? _Elliot said, digging through Tedd's memories.

_Yes, but... _Tedd tried to interrupt.

But Elliot already found it. "Ko- Kaurealis!"

The effect was instant and knocked both of them down on the footway in front of Sarah's house.

Tedd only tentatively got up again, feeling as if a bus had just hit him square. He only needed one moment to realize that something was wrong. When he held his hand in front of his eyes, his supposition was confirmed.

The hand, shimmering under the raindrops reflecting the light from the street-lamp above them, was still Elliot's.

Tedd sat up straight. "Elliot?"

His friend just got up too and stared at him with denial in his eyes. "Oh, this can't be happening!" His body was that of Tedd again. "All this preparation..."

"I don't kn-..."

"Oh, you don't know for once! Now what a wonder is that!" Elliot snarled sarcastically, his frustration getting directed by his anger, which was already aimed at Tedd.

"Yeah, sure, it was my fault, of course!" Tedd shot back, picking up the wand, while getting back on his feet. "C'mon, let's go home and see if my dad can set things right then. He'll be angry at me anyway, so no harm in waking him up at two in the night now!"

"Well it sure ain't my fault!" Elliot replied, trying to stand up, but stumbling upon his loose clothes. He realized just now that these were the clothes that he had worn at school today, but of course they were rather loose on Tedd's body. With a grunt he pulled tight his pants and walked off without another look back.

Tedd could only shake his head and follow him. He grabbed the fallen umbrella on his way, but didn't bother to open it against the pouring rain anymore.

* * *

The elements around them were in turmoil; the heavy rainstorm that has been building all evening was now raging with abandon, blowing hard gusts of wind from several directions.

It was an accurate image of both Tedd's and Elliot's mindscape. The lack of sleep had robbed both of them of the serenity necessary to deal with a situation like this, and too much was on each one's mind after the night's events for either to even be able to care for his best friend, who walked only a few feet away.

It happened all of a sudden.

They were just crossing the bridge that led into the street were Tedd lived. The winds were even stronger here, blowing from the south through the canal so hard that one had to lean against them.

A car passed them. Tedd saw Elliot – who wore his body – reflexively turn away from the water the car splashed into the air as it drove through a large puddle near them.

In the end he wasn't sure if it was the loose, hindering clothes, the strong wind, the body he wasn't completely accustomed to, the stiffness of the calf that had been hit earlier this evening, or maybe all of the above, but in that moment of reflexive movement, Elliot lost his balance. In a split second, he staggered against the bridge railing, but his feet found no hold on the slippery ground. He went right through the guard-rail, the heavy gusts of wind pushing him all the way.

With one hand still clutching his loose pants, he didn't get both hands up in time to catch the only hold available to him. Too surprised to even shout out, he vanished into the darkness.

Tedd opened his mouth in a scream of horror that was never heard, as he saw his friend disappear before his eyes. He couldn't believe it – _this must be a nightmare_, he thought, as he jumped forward to where Elliot had just gone through the railing.

"Elliot!" Tedd shouted into the night below the bridge, the sounds instantly being torn from his lips by the howling winds.

"I- here! I'm here!" The answer caused a surge of relief for Tedd, but it was short-lived. He bent over the guard-rail and saw a pair of hands hanging below the level of the street on an iron cross beam.

"Don't move!" he shouted down. "I'll get you!"

"No! Don't! It's suicide!"

Tedd was fully aware of that, as he swung his leg – of Elliot's body – over the slippery rail. But he didn't care in the least.

Elliot made some feeble attempts to swing his legs back up, but it was a futile effort in Tedd's body, nearly causing him to lose the hold on one hand in the process.

Tedd was now completely over the rail, looking for a more or less secure hold to climb down to his friend's level, and the scarce lightning on the bridge didn't really help him.

"Tedd, don't do anything foolish!" Elliot called to him.

"You're one to talk!" Tedd yelled back. The whole situation had him so frightened that he didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "What could be more, ungh, foolish than to leave you hanging?"

He nearly could reach Elliot's wrist now when he bent down, leaving only one hand on the rail to prevent himself from falling.

_Just a few more steps,_ he thought, frantically looking for a lower foothold.

"Tedd, I- Aaaaaahhhh!" Elliot suddenly screamed as he felt his hands slipping.

In this most desperate moment, his voice of reason yelling at him that he had gone completely mad, Tedd just let his feet fall free. He held onto the guard-rail with one hand while lunging for his friend's wrist with the other.

He managed to grab it in the last possible moment, but now he was hanging with only one hand himself, holding the weight of two bodies! Even though Elliot's body was strong, he'd only have moments until his muscles would fail him!

"Elliot! C'mon you gotta climb up over me!"

"I... can't!"

Pure desperation drove Tedd. His only chance, if he didn't want to drown in the canal with his friend, was to get his dangling feet back on the cross-beam – but first he had to free his other hand. His own slender body was lot lighter than Elliot's, of course, but still not enough to be lifted with only one arm.

Twisting his upper body, Tedd finally managed to bring Elliot high enough that his friend could clasp his hip. And finally, Tedd could use his other arm again to grasp the railing.

Then he swung one leg sideways on the cross beam and used the support to boost himself up. But with Elliot still clasping his mid, he could neither fit through the railing and neither could he climb further up. If Tedd had had any more air to spare, he would have screamed from frustration!

But he had to push that back, his only hope was to think logically and _fast_, for his hands grew more tired from grasping the slippery iron rail with every passing second.

Half heaving, half lifting he worked his way up at the rail, his body turned sideways to not injure his limp friend. Twice he misplaced his foot and slipped, but both times he managed to find a foothold again and continue.

These minutes were some of the most jarring in his life – until he could finally place his feet on the asphalt again and hoist Elliot over the rail. He nearly did not have the strength left to follow – nearly.

"Feri usyug," Tedd panted in uryuomoco after finally sitting on solid ground again. "Elliot?"

His friend lay next to him on the ground and made some weak movements, but couldn't speak an intelligible word.

"Blasted... Elliot!" Tedd rolled him around to see his face. But his friend was extremely exhausted now – both mentally and physically – the weight of this near-death-experience taking its toll on him. He looked at Tedd and nearly smiled, but his eyes bore into him with such a profound sadness that it hurt Tedd to see his friend like that.

"Are– are you hurt?" Tedd asked, close to panic. He scrutinized his friend's body – which was normally his own – but there was no injury to be seen. When he looked at his own face again, Elliot had closed his eyes.

"Blasted," Tedd nearly whimpered now, completely clueless what was the matter with his best friend. He quickly checked his breath and pulse; yes, he was still alive. There was only one thing he could do now. He scooped his friend up into his arms and started marching towards his house as fast as he could.


	4. Chapter 4

Mr. Verres' sleep was uneasy this night. It wasn't the first time his son wasn't at home when he had gone to sleep himself, but as a responsible father it never quite suited him. He knew better than anybody else of Tedd's tendency to attract trouble.

So it was either the feint shimmer of light below his bedroom door or the noise of the front door slamming shut that instantly woke him up when Tedd arrived home at half past two. Normally, Mr. Verres would just have marked that fact and berated Tedd the next day about this behaviour, but something was wrong, he sensed.

He didn't consciously realize that the voice he heard was not his son's or that it sounded really disturbed. But, on some level in his sleepy mind, it rang a dozen alarm bells at once, causing him to get up and head downstairs in a hurry.

At the passage to the living room, he nearly bumped into Elliot – or at least he thought it was his son's friend – but before he could ask a question, his son said:

"It's me, dad, Tedd!"

"Tedd! What in the nine hells..."

"Something happened to Elliot... he's still breathing, but I can't wake him!" Tedd led his father to the couch, where he had laid his friend.

Mr. Verres was quick to push his son out of his way and inspect the unconscious Elliot.

"Explain! All of it!" he demanded, while checking the limp body that Elliot inhabited.

And so Tedd started to recount the events of this day. How Elliot's body had suddenly vanished at school, his mind fusing with Tedd's, how he asked Beta for help, zapped himself with the Elliot form and went out to retrieve the wand and how they split wrong. He didn't mention breaking into Sarah's house or where they got the Elliot form from and was partially relieved that his father seemed to caught up in wrapping his mind around the rest to ask.

In reality, his father had noted all these holes in his son' story, but just didn't deem them important enough to dig deeper at this moment.

Tedd closed with recounting the rescue at the bridge and how he carried Elliot home after not being able to wake him up again.

His dad let out a long sigh. "I have no clue how this all happened in the first place – not yet. But I have a strong hunch where the answer lies." And having dealt with immortals and the spirit plane on a regular basis, he was right on that assumption. "As for why he doesn't wake up... well, I suspect a strong emotional strain."

"What? But how... this is Elliot we're talking about!"

"I don't know, son. But..." Mr. Verres let out another sigh. "I know how you might be able fix this whole mess, even if I don't like to do this. Wait here," he instructed and went upstairs to fetch the apparatus from his desk that could have helped Tedd in the first place.

The young mad scientist just slumped into an armchair, resting his forehead on his palm. He was so immensely drained, both physically and emotionally, that he had reached a point of near total numbness. The only thing he was still able to feel was a shimmer of hope that things would be set right again. He had stopped caring about who might find out about this whole ordeal or that he was currently trapped in Elliot's body; he just wanted Elliot to get better again. Thinking that the last words they had exchanged had been in a quarrel... he just couldn't live with that knowledge!

He didn't even notice his father entering the room again.

"This, son," Mr. Verres announced, "is a method of accessing the spirit plane for a limited amount of time." He held up the small, orbicular device that he had taken home to inspect.

"The... spirit plane? How will that help?"

"If that magic wand you described went wrong – I regret the fact that we don't have time for me to study it now – then it is very likely that the reason lies there. That plane can influence magic in many different ways. If what I think is that case, then it is also very likely that you will find Elliot there. But I must warn you, son. Talk to nobody and nothing besides Elliot when you are there."

"G-got it."

"I wouldn't normally send you to do it, but you will be the only one able to find Elliot there, if he is in fact hiding."

"Hiding? Why would he be..."

"You'll find out soon. Now..." he handed the device to Tedd. "Go ahead. There isn't much time," he ordered, pointedly not giving further explanations.

Tedd rolled the little orb in his hand for a moment. There was only one button.

* * *

Suddenly he was encased by darkness. There was no transition, no weird feeling, nothing. Just all the world around him had gone pitch black. But – strange enough – he could see his own body. He was wearing the clothes he had worn as Elliot now, but it was his own body, that he was looking down at.

But there was absolutely nothing around him. Where was Elliot? Where should he begin to look for his friend?

Before he finished that thought, however, he felt a small, tingling sensation on his right arm. Shifting his attention towards it, it turned out to be a white string, wrapped around his upper arm and then... disappearing? No. Once Tedd started following it with his eyes, he saw there was more to it. It led somewhere, but it seemed he could only make out the part of it that he concentrated on.

Having no other focus point in his void surroundings, Tedd started following the white string.

_Was this really the spirit plane_, he had to doubt. He had read about it and imagined it rather differently. _Maybe something had gone wrong... no matter_, he told himself. He had to try whatever was possible to find his friend.

Since there was no point of reference in the void, Tedd quickly lost track of time. He couldn't say if he had followed the string for only seconds or hours already.

But suddenly he was standing behind Elliot. His friend, too, was in his own body again, sitting there motionless.

"Elliot?" Tedd tentatively asked.

"You found me." It was a simple statement with a hint of surprise in it.

"Why, yes, this is the spi-"

"I hoped you wouldn't."

"What?" Tedd slowly moved to face his friend. Elliot just sat there, chin resting on his knees, his eyes closed.

"What do you mean?" Tedd asked again.

"You rescued me, didn't you?"

"Well, yeah, I helped you get back up. Don't you remember?"

For a long moment there was silence. When Elliot spoke again, there was sadness in his voice. "You put your life in danger because I was careless."

"So?" Tedd didn't quite understand what Elliot was getting at. "It turned out okay, right?" Something popped into his mind. What did his dad say? That Elliot was hiding?

"No! It shouldn't be this way!"

"What... do you mean?" Tedd was thoroughly confused now.

There was no indication whether Elliot had registered his friend's words. "You shouldn't need to rescue me," he just said.

Tedd thought for a second, before answering. "Nobody should need to rescue anybody. But sometimes we all need help, don't we?"

Elliot didn't answer.

"Why are you keeping your eyes shut?" Tedd asked on a spark of intuition.

"I - ...I don't know. I guess... I don't want to face myself."

Tedd sat down near Elliot. "Why are you afraid to face yourself?" he rephrased for his friend.

Moments of silence stretched into what may have been minutes. Tedd slowly grew restless. Hadn't his dad said something about there being not much time? But what was time in this place?

Finally, he heard Elliot claim: "I'm useless."

Tedd instantly opened his mouth to debate that, but something kept him back. It was so unlike his friend to, well, wallow in self-pity like this. There had to be something new, something that really threw him off.

"I don't think so," Tedd answered pensively. "And you know that. But if you suddenly _do_ think otherwise, then go and do something about it."

"But... I can't..."

"Well, for starters, I'm also here to remedy our little body-swap situation. I don't know how yet, but I'm pretty sure I'll need your help. Only that won't work with your eyes closed."

Elliot's face was a mask, giving no indication what impact Tedd's words had on him, if any. But at some point, the words of his best friend must have pierced the veil of solitude that Elliot had kept up around him.

"You're right... Tedd."

And in the same moment as Elliot opened his eyes, it was like a giant eyelid around them was lifted and the darkness made way for the world again.

Now Tedd was finally sure that they were on the spirit plane. He recognized his living room around them, albeit in a somewhat blurry outline.

He and Elliot seemed to be sitting in the air above the couch table, but now that Tedd became aware of that, he began floating downwards again.

And there they – or at least their physical forms, as Tedd realized – lay motionless in the armchair and on the couch. And between them was that white string again, here easily visible. It bound them together, but was all in chaos. That's not how it was supposed to be, they both sensed instinctively.

But already Tedd felt the pull back to the physical realm. He remembered his dad talking about a time limit again. It seemed they had to hurry up now.

"C'mon, help me untangle this! Quick!"

Elliot moved to help him with the string, but it was easier said than done. Maybe with several hours at their disposal they could achieve something, but not in the seconds they had left. No matter how much string they untangled, there always seemed to be more knots and nooses.

"Damn, this won't work," Tedd exclaimed in frustration.

The pull got stronger.

"This seems to be a connection between us, am I right," Elliot asked calmly.

"Yes..."

"Well, then..." he grabbed a bunch of string with two hands, as if to rip it apart.

"Wait!" Tedd yelled. "A- are you sure about this?"

"No," Elliot admitted. "But if it is some sort of bond between us, and that is what it feels to me, too, then we can rebuild it." He looked at Tedd, who saw the determination and trust in their friendship in his friend's eyes – and nodded.

And Elliot bulged his muscles and ripped the ball of string in two.

Tedd had the feeling as if something was ripped out of him, leaving behind a hollow void, but neither he did he have time to examine that feeling nor to contemplate if that was enough for their task. The pull got ever stronger, and he had trouble fighting it now. _But what about Elliot?_ While Tedd had used his dad's device to get here and would take the same way back, what about his friend?

There was no time to explain and he wouldn't take any chances, so he just firmly grabbed Elliot's wrist and hoped that would suffice.

The way back wasn't as easy as his journey tothe spirit plane. He suddenly found himself completely without orientation, drifting through space – until he suddenly awoke on his back, his arm nearly cricked in a very uncomfortable position.

"Ouch," Tedd said confused, trying to move his arm. He only then realized, he was lying on his living room floor. Elliot, who lay behind him, and he were still grasping each others wrists, what must have brought his arm in such an unnatural position.

"Tedd?" Elliot loosened his grasp as he awoke too.

"I'm here, Elliot," the purple-haired boy let him know. "And it looks like we're back to our own bodies!"

Elliot let out a sigh of relief. "Wait... since when have we been in your living room? I wasted no thoughts on what I've seen in this strange place, but now..."

"You don't remember? Wait, of course you don't. You were out cold..." Tedd's voice trailed off. He had a feeling it was better not to remind his friend too bluntly of his moment of weakness at the bridge, even if it was completely understandable to Tedd.

Standing up, he added: "It's okay. But where's dad gone?" He took a look at the clock – he had only been gone for twenty minutes.

"Your dad? What else did I miss?"

"Well, he gave me this device," he pulled it out of his pocket, "to access the spirit plane."

"Spirit plane? So that's where... man, it seems like a dream to me now." Elliot shook his head in confusion and let himself slump into the armchair where Tedd had been sitting previously.

"Wait a sec, I'll just check upstairs," Tedd said and went up the stairs, heading for his father's room.

Not making a noise, he peeked inside – and indeed, his father was soundly at sleep in bed. Puzzled, but not questioning his luck, Tedd put the device back on the desk and went back downstairs.

He could not know, of course, that Mr. Verres' short-term memory had been erased yet again as Tedd had entered the spirit plane with the orbicular apparatus and that his father would carry no memories of this night.

"Right." Tedd slumped onto the couch. "You wanna take a shower before I drive you home?"

Elliot had already pulled off his wet jacket.

"Thanks for offering, but I'll just do that in the morning. I think I could fall asleep while standing now."

_That won't change much after only three hours of sleep,_ Tedd thought to himself, but just nodded and said: "All right. Let's go."

While he was fetching his keys, something else came to his mind.

"Elliot..."

"Yes?"

"I... wanted to say I'm sorry. I was out of line at Sarah's."

Elliot, who was already standing at the door, turned around to face him. For a moment his face remained fixed, but then he showed a tiny smile. "Accepted," he said with a nod.

The rain was still pouring when they made a run to the car outside, but the storm had lessened noticeably.

* * *

The entity was pleased. Those two mortals coming to the spirit plane had been easy to foresee, but the scenario of them severing their own bond to remedy the situation had not crossed the immortal's mind. That nearly made up for the fact that the mayhem it had caused was already over after only one night. But the mischievous entity had other playthings to keep itself occupied. Things like Magus, who was even more riled up now, as he had keenly felt Elliot's presence on the spirit plane. But the entity had kept the mortals well hidden from other denizens of this plane. Their interference would have made things much too predictable and boring.

The most wicked of immortals was pleased.

* * *

"...and a surprisingly powerful storm pushed across Moperville this night, packing over forty miles per hour winds. Several trees have been rooted or damaged, as reports say, but projections on property damage remain marginal..."

"Any of you noticed that storm?" Tedd asked with a nod to the radio at breakfast.

"I slept through it," Grace let him know.

"So did I," said his father over the newspaper.

Tedd, trying to keep a straight face, which was hard after only three short hours of sleep, nodded. "Couldn't have been so bad then."

For Tedd, the events of the night seemed to be in a haze now. He knew, rationally, that everything he remembered had happened. Heck, he got the scare of his life on that bridge and probably wouldn't ever cross a bridge again without his heartbeat accelerating. And there was also this distinct, but not really locatable sense of loss that he felt since they had returned to their own bodies, but still... he probably needed some time to sort all this out. And a good night's sleep. Yes, that in particular. Too bad he wouldn't get anything like that now... well, maybe during chemistry class... some living goo to keep the teach distracted and off his back...

"Tedd, c'mon, you gotta get ready too," Grace reminded him with a playful nudge.

"Huh? Wha'? Oh, yeah, coming." He wondered how Elliot was doing this morning.

The answer was an easy one: just as tired. When Tedd stood up from the breakfast table, Elliot was already packing the last things in his school bag, but he was rather asleep at the switch, as the saying goes. That made it a lot easier to ignore the looks that Ellen shot him after he had turned down their usual morning race, but some things just couldn't be changed.

Above all things, he'd like to have some time alone now, same as Tedd, but the need to not arise suspicion clearly hindered that. He could have faked being sick. But that would have included lying, and he knew just how good he was at that. And gods, he still didn't know what to tell Sarah. Oh yes, this would turn out to be an interesting day at school for sure.

And that included meeting Tedd again. Their ride back a few hours ago had passed mostly in silence, but that could be blamed on their shared weariness as well. But no matter the cause, Elliot felt that things would be different between them now. Maybe undetectable to everybody else, but things would be different – but that didn't mean worse.

Suddenly being startled from his thoughts by a call from below, Elliot realized he had stared into his schoolbag for the last minutes without moving a finger. With a determined grunt, he shouldered it and went to catch the bus.

The storm had passed by now, but the sun had not yet managed to pierce the thick clouds again. But it would do so again.

It always did.

* * *

End of Part 1


End file.
